Belotti not letting Arsenal rumours go to his head

Yesterday we heard the rumours that Arsenal had reportedly made a £56 million offer for Torino star striker Andrea Belotti. The Italian has shown some real talent so far this season for the Turin side and as a result has supposedly picked up a bit of interest from a number of top European clubs, including Arsenal.

It was Torino who made a club statement yesterday, with the club’s sporting director admitting that they had refused an offer from Arsenal.

Petrachi said: “We received and refused a €65m (£56m) offer from Arsenal for Andrea Belotti, but it does not reflect the value of the player.”

First of all I don’t believe that Arsenal would’ve offered such a sum of money for any player not considered world class, let alone 23 year old Belotti, who quite frankly has remained unknown until his current run of form. But a very good spell of form does not automatically mean your value skyrockets to crazy sums of money and that’s what seems to have happened here. I very much doubt Arsenal made such an offer, however Arsene Wenger may indeed be interested.

Belotti himself has now had a go on the media frenzy, by adding to the said speculation with a statement of his own. Belotti told the Italian media: “I have to continue like this, I cannot let it go to my head. I always have to work, I hope to play a good 2017 to conquer my dreams. The Premier League? I do not think about it, I just think of Torino and doing well here, then we will see.”

In my opinion that quote seems to suggest to me that he’s perfectly happy at staying at Torino, however he recognises that a move may be on the cards in the future. There had been a few suggestions that Wenger was considering a move for a player in the summer window, so perhaps Belotti reckons that a January move may be a little too soon considering he’s unlikely to want to interrupt the good spell of form he’s having this season.

A player like Belotti would certainly give Arsenal another option to utilise, however I must admit I don’t know too much about the player. I find it a move unlikely considering we’ve found the inner striker in Alexis Sanchez and the return of Olivier Giroud, whilst we cannot forget that Lucas Perez and Danny Welbeck are also waiting on the wings to make an impact. With this in mind, I’m not sure if spending £50 million plus on what many consider to be a player who isn’t world class, is the greatest idea for Arsenal. Therefore if this story is true, I think many will be pleased the Gunners missed out on what is a ridiculous amount of money for his less than consistently proven talent.

By AH